Field of Glory Renaissance in Devizes 2011
It was a glorious Victory against undoubtably the top seeds, accomplshed with vim, vigour and a dash or derring do. What could possibly go wrong....?
The afternoon saw us facing The Don and his army of Donnesque Germans In the absence of a FoG Renaissance Wiki (just yet anyway) the Don's lists can be seen here. (Any videos in these reports are all pretty short - well under a minute)
Knowing The Don well from previous games, mostly in the West Country DBM days so secure in the knowledge of the old West of England Proverb of "If You Give The Don a Corner, He Will Go and Sit In It", we duly obliged with a village on the Dons baseline, and also a steep hill - creating a nice little place where we knew the meat of the German army woudl be waiting - for our full frontal French assault troops. We had also dropped in another flank march, hoping to skittle German cavalry bunched up by the need to avoid the massed terrain on their base edge
Ono the left the French Dragoon force did what they were supposed to, and rushed forwards to take control of an enclosed field near the German lines, pinning the enemey back - if only they had any plan whatsoever to advance this would have been an excellent maneuver!
Unimpeded by even a sniff of a counter-advancing enemy, the French line sailed magisterially forward
The French dragoons were wearing their special cannon-ball attracting underpands, and immediately took a base loss and two consecutive drops in cohesion from the first two rounds fo shooting from the 2 German artillery pieces. Time to fall back and regroup in the face of a largely static enemy - if only the flank march would arrive things might change...
No, time to incur a 3rd cohesion loss and rout in three rounds fo shooting!
The Germans were still waiting, and the French were eager to oblige....
With ample rear support and a Great Commander leading them from the middle of several units, the French were able to withstand a mass of Germanic shooting
A couple of French base losses were an acceptable price to pay - retaining cohesion was everything as the French girded their loins for the bayonet-charge!
The red-clad Swiss Guard are first in, and fragment a German pike and shot unit in the first round of combats! Another Superior French unit fares not quite so well, but is still engaged hand to hand to the right as the rest of the Line Infantry move up to charge home.
The Germans throw in Generals to shore up their line, whilst the French are inexorably being whittled down by a series of base losses even when winning combats - the Germans however are faltering in morale, but are refusing to die!
A wall of Grey-coated foot tee themselves up for a charge on an almost ACW-looking German position embededded with Batallion Guns
The one remaining unit of Dragoons has borrowed its colleagues underpants of despair (yeuch) and is also attracting a withering fire from the Germans - if only the flank march would arrive things might change...
The French have lost a unit of Guard - entirely to base losses - and the Swiss have been unable to finish off a fragmented unit either - maybe the third (blue-clad) Guard unit will tip the scales back in France's favour?
Almost everyone is engaged in the middle.... the dratted Germans keep dropping cohesion, but then recovering it later on- the once fragmented unit is now back to full strength !
Routing Frenchies flee through their own lines, with the German in hot pursuit...
The French throw in more Guard - but the Swiss are now only an element away from breaking....
The French cavalry, smelling defeat in the wind, and without either of the two dragoon units left on table and intact, launch an unsupported charge into the hot zone, hoping to clip a unit of German Dragoons uncovered by an evade - which they succeed in ! One base each, but impact cavalry vs Dragoons...
Nothing is working for the French centre - in a puff of talcum powder and lace sleeves, the three units of Superiors almost entirely evaporate in a single turn!
Suddenly the French Line infantry are the entire army - everything else is gone. The French form a redoubt to try and halt the rampaging German counterattack
Nothing is working - even with Louis XIV taking personal command the French seem incapable of passing any cohesion tests or winning any impacts or melees - its all going very Le Pete Tong
The French start to run out of cohesion markers as the German well engineered vice closes shut !
Oh dear - the game is done.... and still no flank march
Post Match Summary
Well, Some You Gagnez, and some your Gagnez-not as we say in France me hail fellows !
A brilliant plan, a brilliant deployment, a passive enemy, and dice so poor they might as well have been rolling around in a chamber pot beneath an incontinent's death bed - what can one do really ?
It's a game of some skill, and some dice - and this was the latter. At least we anticipated the enemy plan with perfection - if only we had anticipated our dice we would have been able to retire early to the smoking room and buy stuff in the tradeshow
At least I have one consolation, luck like this is only legal because I wish it to be so
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You are now sailed into the north of my ladies opinion, where you will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman's beard until the day is done and you canst start agaion with another battaile - mores the pity, as t'would be good to see you trampled twice o'er for such paltroonery
Your bum is the greatest thing about you, so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pomey the Great rather than Pompey The Great - so 'twas good that your troops showed their rear ends to the enemy with such alacrity and enthusiasm
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things - what a lack of intellect to try a flank march when the obvious place for the enemy was passive and centrally deployed in a redoubt of great fortitude
Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heel and make a quagmire of your mingled brains for trying such a plan - you should realise that being lucky once doest not mean it is guaranteed to happen again
Your peevish chastity is not worth a breakfast in the cheapest country castle of Germany, when really someone should have just sat and artillerized the enemy until they were forced to come out and move into deeply unfamiliar territory - the other side of the table - if they wished to fight you
I am so glad that normal service has been renewed, and your reliance in a small army of troops who need luck at impact to be succesful is starting to show it's flaws
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